Thursday, 26 July 2012

I'd not expected to get all three 'new bands' in one fell swoop, but I have. Thanks to the Humble Music Bundle, I've now listened to FOUR new bands:

They Might be Giants (rather odd! but OK in their way! - we did have an album by them, but I don't recall listening to it);OK Go, (again quite strange!);
Rather dramatic music from video games from Hitoshi Sakimoto;
and probably the most interesting, Christopher Tin's album Calling All Dawns.

(We already have some MC Frontalot, and Jonathan Coulton; it was thanks to these that we gave the others a chance!)

I still intend to keep looking for fresh music, but I consider my duty by my Challenge done!

36 Horse-ride along a beach, in the surf :)
37 Take a course in Bookbinding & bind a book. (If course is running in Sept.)
38 Take a Millinery course & make a hat
39 Have a Capoeira lesson
40 Take a Fan Dancing class

41 Box Brownie photography (Jo)
42 Make Ginger Beer
43 Make a Dragon sculpture, since it is Chinese Year of the Dragon!

I've finished Beowulf (in a prose version; I might read a poetry version as well, but I'm in the middle of reading Metro 2033 now, which is very gripping, so it won't be for a while yet!)

I also finally made it to the Lit & Phil in Town yesterday. It's been a moveable feast as it were, because it doesn't have to be done on any particular day; but yesterday, I thought 'sod it' and went in anyway, even though I had other things to be done in the day; they could wait!

The Lit & Phil

I couldn't resist getting a photo of this lovely spiral staircase.

I spent a while in there reading a copy of Scientific American that was lying on a table. I would have spent longer (I found a couple of books on Victoriana) but I really did have to do 'real life' things like shopping for milk and so on!

So, as a couple of people have asked me lately how far through my Challenge I am, I think I'm probably due another updated list. Next post!

Friday, 6 July 2012

My corset is finished! Many thanks to K for her invaluable knowledge, and willingness to teach me! There will be pictures after Thursday when I will hopefully wear it out for the first time :D

I've started Beowulf, which is a lot easier to read than I was expecting (I'm reading a prose translation first and then I might try a poetry version if I feel like it.)

I'm hardly wearing black at all these days, so I think I can safely say that I've changed my style to a somewhat more Steampunk one, so I'm going to cross that one off my list when I next update it.

I didn't get to the Lit & Phil or the Toy Museum last week, but they're still on the calendar for sometime soon, so I will definitely visit them.

One
of the things I have been intending to do is a 'money diet'. On
Wednesday, it became more urgent, when I checked my bank account &
realised that I was in the redder-than-red :( So I've been doing some
sums, with the help of a couple of very useful websites, and starting on
Monday, I'll be tightening the purse strings considerably. Apart from
bus-fares and any necessary food shopping, I'm going to try to spend no
money next week, no coffees in town, no random clothes shopping (not
even Charity Shops!) no nothin'. I'll see how it goes...

I held a tortoise for the first time today... pretty random, but I guess it counts!